It’s #ThrowbackThursday so I thought I would reblog the post which has been most popular so far this year (outside of my Top 10 lists)…
…and it’s still a post from last year on some of the best red wines I enjoyed at the Lidl Press lasting. It just goes to show, that while we all enjoy fine wine, and I am occasionally privileged to try some great wines at tastings, it’s the wines that people want to spend a few more € when putting a bottle in their trolley with the weekly shopping that are most important to people.
Stanley’s of St. Andrew’s Street (Photo credit: Ruth Maria Murphy)
In February I was delighted to accept an invitation to an exciting wine and food event at Stanley’s Restaurant & Wine Bar on St Andrew’s Street in Dublin. The wines were from Northern Rhône starYvesCuilleron, which gives us a full house of names.
The wines were selected by Wine Director Morgan Vanderkamer and introduced by Yves himself. As one of the few other French speakers I was given the honour of occasional interpreter. The amazing menu was put together by proprietor & Head Chef Stephen McArdle (nickname Stanley!) who takes inspiration from French cuisine in particular.
Cave Yves Cuilleron
Yves Cuilleron at home
Yves elucidates the history behind his family vineyards on his websitebut, en bref, he took over the family vineyards when his uncle retired in 1987 – he surprised his relatives by throwing himself into the family business. He has constantly innovated and invested since then, building a new cellar then later a new winery, and expanding his vineyards across most of the northern Rhône’s appellations.
Stone and earthwork terrace to help stop soil erosion
For around ten years, Cuilleron wines have been brought into Ireland by Le Caveau.
Stanley’s Restaurant & Wine Bar
Stanley’s has a wine bar on the ground floor, with a well-curated and interesting list by the bottle and by the glass. Where else could you try a mini-flight of skin contact orange wines?
Stanley’s Wine Bar with super-quick barman
Upstairs is the main dining room – light and airy during the day but feeling more sophisticated in the evening. The top floor has also been made available as a private dining room (no photos yet, it’s that new!)
Light feature
The faux-military portraits are great talking points.
Portraits – isn’t that….
So now we’ve set the scene and done a bit of a guided tour, down to business with the food and wine!
This is a simple wine made to be drunk young, but is very approachable. I was lucky enough (by virtue of my linguistics) to be able to taste the single bottle of 2012 available. There’s fresh peach and a hint of honey with a touch of breadiness from time on the lees.
For his IGP wines, Yves tries to bring out the characteristics of the grape, which of course can be stated on the label for IGP wines but not for AOP wines. Marsanne is often partnered with Roussanne in the northern Rhône but here it shines on its own.
Cornas is a mono-cépage wine, i.e. it’s a 100% varietal under AOP regulations – and that variety is Syrah. Until relatively recently, Cornas wines were often rough round the edges, euphemistically termed “rustic”. They needed time in the bottle to soften up, and you just had to hope that there was enough fruit left by then.
Yves’s Cornas is modern, clean and fruity, without being “manufactured”. There’s power here but it’s from intensity of flavour rather than high alcohol. Black cherry, blackberry and plum combine with tobacco and spice – the latter particularly hitting it off with the gingerbread.
When it comes to foodstuffs, some people can be funny buggers. Unfortunately, I’m one of them – and rabbit is never on the menu in my house. Out of respect for my hosts and fellow dinners I tried the dish – and was astounded! I’ve been missing out on delicious things like this for years! Bunny owners better put some good latches on your hutches!
Up to 20% Viognier is permitted in the red wines of this appellation, as long as the grapes are cofermented, though in practice it is rarely that high. Traditionally Côte Rôtie is split between the Côte Brune in the north with dark, iron-rich schist and the Côte Blonde in the south with pale granite and schist soil. Yves is more a believer in the importance of each vineyard’s aspect, i.e. which direction it faces.
2009 was a very good, warm vintage across much of France, including the northern Rhône. This comes through in power, warmth and fruit – venturing more into the red fruit part of the spectrum than the Cornas. There’s also both floral and savoury notes on the nose – sounds like quite a contradiction, but lovel – and an amazing match with the rich venison!
This is a sweet, Late Harvest style with some botrytis (noble rot). The semi-dessicated grapes are hand-picked with several sorting stages from mid-October to mid-November, then pressed and left to settle.
It has around 100 g/L of residual sugar, but is soft and soothing without being cloying. A simple rule of thumb for dessert wines is, does the acidity balance the sugar? And in this case, undoubtedly yes!
As regular readers will know I’m far from a cheese fan myself, but I was told the Cashel Blue was lovely and went well with the Condrieu. I can attest, however, that the latter was lovely with the salted caramel.
Mascarpone, white chocolate, pear Yves Cuilleron Condrieu “La Petite Côte” 2013
Yves Cuilleron Condrieu “la Petite Côte” 2013
This is the sort of wonderfully rich wine that a novice taster might think was sweet – it isn’t, but shows apparent sweetness due to abundant fruit and a slight oiliness in the mouth. It’s dry but not Sahara dry.
It was something of a bold selection – moving back to a dry wine to accompany dessert – but it worked because the dessert wasn’t super sweet, with acidity from the pear, and the honeyed notes from the wine.
Many thanks to Patrick, Stephen, Morgan and Yves for a fantastic evening!
I’ve been seriously into wine for over two decades, but only writing about it for less than two years. Blogging is a great way of expressing your passion, whatever it is, and can be thoroughly rewarding.
The hardest part is starting, but then it’s important to get a bit of momentum. I think these three fairly self-evident rules are the A-B-C of improving the quality of your writing.
Read More
Unless you’re a natural born writer, reading other writers’ output can help improve your own for several reasons:
Firstly, just seeing how other people use words can inspire you to use language better, how to express what you’re saying succinctly and eloquently. We’re not going for the Pulitzer or Booker Prizes, but it can make your writing more readable.
Secondly, even if you’re knowledgeable about the subject matter, it won’t hurt to read others’ viewpoints, and the chances are that you will learn plenty. Speaking just about wine, the more you learn the more you realise you don’t know…
And finally, for now, you can see what works in terms of structure, layout, titles, images, labelling – all the fiddly bits that take a while to get used to, even on easy to use blog packages such as WordPress. They aren’t part of your writing per se, but they are part of communication, which is what it’s all about.
Write More
Practice makes perfect, so they say, but even if in reality perfection is unobtainable, nothing makes writing better and easier than doing it.
It often takes a while to find a writing style or “voice” that you’re comfortable with, but just keep going. In some ways it’s like speaking in public, with all the guidance in the world you need to keep doing it to put tips and tricks into practice.
If you’ve got a dozen posts under your belt, then take the time to have a rest and re-evaluate what you’ve written.
Edit
Some people can just start writing there and then, and end up saying exactly what they want in the way they wanted to say it. I admire these rare beasts, but I am not among their number.
If your spelling and grammar aren’t great this is a must. Even if your readers don’t judge you when you use poor grammar, as the meme goes, it can distract them from the content of your blog.
If there’s any factual content, then asking the google to check it can help to stop you from looking silly.
If you can get someone else to read what you’ve done, even better, as a second pair of eyes is always useful.
So for me, it’s much better to get as much down as possible, even if it’s stream-of consciousness stuff, then come back to edit it later.
And if your subject happens to be wine, and you’re “investigating” a particular topic, then it wouldn’t hurt to follow Ernest Hemingway’s maxim:
For a long time I was almost purely a red wine drinker. Then, due for inconvenient minor health reasons I had to give up red wine, so I became solely a white wine drinker. That led me to putting some serious “research” into white wine, so now although I drink red again, over 70% of my cellar is white.
But what about rosé? It’s neither fish nor fowl, neither red nor white – why does it even exist?
It’s the duck-billed platypus of wine!
It doesn’t have the freshness of white or the pleasing body of red – it falls between two stools and does neither thing well.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that it’s the fastest growing wine category in France, so if you venture into a French supermarket you will see more pink than white – what gives?
This isn’t a rant about pink things for the sake of it – I’m quite metrosexual in my dress sense and will happily wear pink shirts and / or ties.
And then the solution finally dawned on me. If it’s any good, treat a rosé like a light red and chill it very slightly, but drink it out of proper red wine glasses. That’s what I did with this delicious Masi rosato.
Rosa del Masi
I do keep harping on about the temperature of wine, but it’s so important for acidity, sweetness, aromas and flavours.
It turns out I’ve been drinking rosé wrong all this time!
Originally in Belfast, Mourne Seafood Bar also has venues in Dundrum (the other Dundrum, not the one in south Dublin) and at Grand Canal Dock close to the Liffey. Considering the size, importance and location of Dublin there are very few seafood restaurants here, so this is a welcome addition.
Mourne also has an excellent wine list, with plenty of red wines which might surprise some. My review will concentrate on the liquids and then my friend Jayne will give an account of her visit.
A Wino’s View
Mourne Seafood Bar interior, looking over Grand Canal Dock
I’m not very adventurous when it comes to seafood – fish and chips will do me just fine most of the time. As it happens Mourne do the best fish and chips that I’ve tasted in any restaurant in Dublin, and the portions are fantastic, so I tend to stick to what I know and like.
On a recent visit I did venture slightly off piste and tried the Chowder (excellent) and the Moules Provençales (excellent and filling). If you like seafood you owe it to yourself to give it a try.
So now I will move onto some of the wines I’ve tried and loved:
Sartarelli Verdicchio Spumante, Marche, Italy
Sartarelli Verdicchio Spumante Brut NV
In the April edition of TheTaste.ie I reviewed the still Verdicchio from this producer as it was poured at the Ely BIG Tasting in March, and it was a winner. By happenstance the still wine was only there by accident, it was this Spumante which was supposed to be shown.
Not to miss out I tried it at Mourne and was very impressed. It’s a proper wine, with plenty of zippy acidity and citrus flavour to serve as an aperitif, with seafood (makes sense!) or on its own.
La Piuma “Terre di Chieti” Pecorino, Marche, Italy
La Piuma “Terre di Chieti” Pecorino, Marche
As a renowned cheese hater I was obviously wary of something with “Pecorino” on the label, but the beauty of wines-by-the-glass means you don’t have to take a chance on a whole bottle. There’s flowers, soft stone fruit and racy acidity, plus a little more texture and interest than you get from everyday Italian whites.
I would be interested to see how this ages. Take the plunge and try this wine!
Soalheiro “Allo”Alvarinho & Loureiro, Vinho Regional Minho, Portugal
Quinta de Soalheiro Vinho Regional Minho Allo
To be clear: this is nothing to do with Michelle from the Resistance, Réné or the Fallen Madonna with the…erm…you know whats.
This is a delicious white wine from the Vinho Verde area of northern Portugal, close to the border with Galicia. The main difference from the Vinho Verde DOC and Minho VR is that the latter may contain non indigenous grapes – often Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon.
This bottle is a blend of two local varieties, Alvarinho (better known as Albariño in Rias Baixas and Loureiro, and for my palate it knocks spots off many more expensive wines. This does well with seafood but has enough fruity characters to be quaffed on its own.
The same crowd do a fantastic sparkling Alvarinho which I reviewed here
Domaine Octavie, Sauvignon Blanc, Touraine, France
Domaine Octavie Sauvignon de Touraine
Touraine is a reliable, easy-drinking and food-friendly wine from the area around the city of Tours in the Loire Valley. It comes in red, rosé and white versions and can be made from a dozen permitted grapes. Helpfully, those made from Sauvignon Blanc usually display it on the front label, still quite unusual for French wines.
Although reliable, Sauvignon de Touraine can be a bit sharp and acidic at times. This, however, has a depth of flavour rarely encountered in the area – it could easily pass for a more expensive neighbour from Sancerre. It’s possibly the best Touraine I’ve ever tasted.
Verdict
Taste The Sea
Food 8/10
Wine 8/10
Service 8/10
Given my lack of adventure with seafood, I was delighted when my Twitter friend Jayne agreed to contribute to this post after she had visited Mourne earlier in the year!
A Foodie’s View
Jayne loves shoes…and wine….and seafood!
Well, well, well. On a rugby weekend to Dublin I had the most fantastic find of Mourne Seafood. Set by the waterside, the setting was almost as perfect as the food. Being a self confessed seafood and wine junkie, Mourne Seafood did not disappoint! The only challenge was what to choose from the delights on offer.
Pil Pil Prawns
Starting with the Pil Pil prawns with smoked paprika, chilli and garlic, they tasted as good as they looked and warmed me up as it sleeted outside.
Irish Scallops Linguine
After washing it down with a fresh Sauvignon Blanc, I enjoyed the delectable seared Irish scallops linguine. Cooked to perfection.
I could see all the diners thoroughly enjoying the food and atmosphere as I left to watch Ireland unashamedly beat England. If you’re looking for a meal for 2 or group get together Mourne Seafood is a great choice.
Until fairly recently I was very happy with Marlborough Groovies.
But then thanks to some excellent tastings in Dublin I began to realise that, although New Zealand GVs are very nice, they are only analogous to the simpler style of those from Austria. Outside of those, there’s a whole world of flavours and textures to try – see here.
And now, I’ve changed my mind again!
This is why:
Nautilus Estate Marlborough Grüner Veltliner 2011
Nautilus Estate Marlborough Grüner Veltliner 2011
I’m a big fan of Nautilus Wines, especially their lovely fizz and gorgeous Chardonnay (one of the best in New Zealand in my opinion). It’s great that they’ve planted other aromatic grapes as Marlborough’s dry and cool, long growing season is perfect for them.
Normally this style of Grüner is one that is supposedly best drunk young – which is pretty much true for Marlborough Sauvignons. Alongside citrus and stone fruit and a dash of white pepper, there’s loads of freshness which makes them a joy to drink. But once the freshness is gone, you can’t get it back – there’s no Shake n’ Vac solution here.
But this wine was inadvertently left till four years after vintage, and yes a little of the freshness had gone, but it was replaced by some lovely toasty notes – just like you would expect from a good Aussie Semillon.
It’s a delicious wine, I just wish I’d held on to my other bottles for longer!
It just goes to show: most wine is drunk far too young!
Please ponder that message and put a few “ordinary” bottles aside to try in a few years.
For Throwback Thursday I thought I’d reblog this piece from last year which was quite popular, and it’s the kind of lighter wines that many of us are opening now we’re into Spring
Twice a year the Ely Winebar and Restaurant Group hold consumer tastings at their larger venue in Dublin’s IFSC. Over a dozen of their wine suppliers show a selection of their wines, both currently listed and not listed, so that consumers get a chance to try new things and their feedback might lead to new listings!
The tastings are very well organised by Ely Group Wine Manager Ian Brosnan and Head of Biz Dev Jeri Mahon – thanks to both them and all the other staff supporting the event.
Here are a few of the wines which really stood out for me:
1. Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve NV (Liberty Wine) {by the glass at Ely Place and Ely CHQ}
Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve
Perhaps it was the occasion, the perfect serving temperature or perhaps just a little extra time in bottle since I tried this last year, but Charles was tasting fantastic. The fruit is lovely and there’s some light biscotti notes from ageing on the lees. Perfectly balanced and poised, this is a definite candidate for the best non-vintage Champagne on the market.
2. San Lorenzo Verdicchio dei Castelli de Jesi Superiore ‘Vigna delle Oche’ Marche 2012 (GrapeCircus at Sheridan’s) {by the glass at Ely Place and Ely CHQ}
San Lorenzo Verdicchio dei Castelli de Jesi Superiore ‘Vigna delle Oche’ 2012
San Lorenzo is a well-established family producer now run by Natalino Crognaletti – something of a madman/eccentric/genius* (delete as appropriate) who is not only organic, not only biodynamic, but also believes in being self-sufficient. This means that he follows a minimal intervention path of wine making, with much more work required in the vineyard, but even goes so far as to keep chickens so he has his own eggs for fining the wines before bottling!! (This helps remove any big particles and can be an alternative to filtration which can strip out the flavours.
So what’s the result in the glass? Loads and loads of flavour! There’s minerality, citrus and soft stone fruit – and oodles of texture, which would make it a great food wine. You need to give this a try to taste something off the beaten path.
3. Domaine des Baumard Savennières “Clos de St Yves” 2010 (Tyrrell & Co)
Domaine des Baumard Savennières “Clos St Yves”
This wine sparked such a positive reaction that I was moved to note the highly articulate comment: “Toast toast toast – frickin awesome!”
Chenin Blanc is one of the world’s most under-rated grapes, and the Loire Valley is perhaps France’s most under-appreciated wine producing areas. Having said that, I don’t often fancy the drier versions, but adore the sweeter ones, all of them having a trademark streak of acidity through the middle.
This example really hit the spot! It has already started to take on more interesting flavours but hasn’t lost its freshness. Tasted blind this would fool plenty into thinking it was a posh white Burgundy.
The producer likes his wines to be as clean as possible so uses no oak barrels and seals bottles with screwcaps rather than corks – thumbs up from me.
4. Paddy Borthwick Wairarapa Sauvignon Blanc 2014 (Wines Direct) {by the glass at Ely CHQ}
Paddy Borthwick Wairarapa Sauvignon Blanc 2014
The third word there is the wine region of Wairarapa in the south of New Zealand’s North Island, not to be confused with Waipara which is north of Cantebury on the South Island. It’s an area more well-known for its Pinot Noir, particularly in the main subregion of Martinborough (again, not to be confused with Marlborough), but it is also home to some excellent aromatic whites.
Rather than gooseberry, asparagus and grapefruit which are stereotypical Marlborough Savvy flavours, Sauvignon from here is often even more tropical. This lovely example from Paddy Borthwick had passion fruit notes jumping out of the glass – in fact it reminded me of the passion fruit Mojito that my wife had at Cleaver East on Mother’s Day!
5. Sipp Mack Alsace Grand Cru Rosacker Riesling 2009 (Mitchell & Son) {by the glass at Ely CHQ}
Sipp Mack Alsace Grand Cru Rosacker Riesling 2009
I could happily have spent the evening just smelling this amazing wine (but then I’d have missed out on so much else!) Sipp Mack is one of the top echelon of Alsace producers and a personal favourite of mine, especially their Grand Cru Riesling and Pinot Gris bottles. There’s a touch of sweetness which acts as a counterpoint to the zippy acidity and mineral freshness.
This is drinking gorgeously now but, if you could keep your hands off it, will be even more amazing in five years’ time.
This is Unreconstructed, All-original, Can’t be bettered, Aussie Chardonnay!
The past decade has seen Australian Chardonnay move back from big, alcoholic fruit bombs to more subtle, mineral and food-friendly styles. Mclaren Vale’s D’Arenburg hasn’t really followed that trend, which wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who knows of the current boss Chester Osbourne – his shirts are so loud they can be seen from space and he released a wine called Fuckeliana (yes, really!)
In fairness this is actually made the other side of Adelaide from their base, up in the Adelaide Hills which is the source of Shaw + Smith’s M3 Chardonnay. It’s big but doesn’t have that buttery, especially melted butter, taste of some Chardonnays.
Yesterday I had my first experience judging wines in a competition – hurrah!
But not ordinary wines, no. These were a small number of wines entered into the (Irish) National Homebrew Club’s third annual competition, so home made wines. I had expected they would be kit wines, perhaps with an odd tweak here and there, but no…
They were fruit wines! The so-called “country wine” category…but nothing ventured, nothing gained! There is vitis vinifera grape wine made in Ireland, though it’s produced in very small quantities and isn’t the finest you might have tried – though it’s definitely drinkable – see here. The competition had but three entrants in the wines category compared to hundreds of beers of all types.
It was a very interesting experience, and on reflection I’ve jotted down a few thoughts. Please excuse me if they are bleedin’ obvious!
1) Judging isn’t the same as tasting
When you’re tasting, especially if it’s just for your own interest, you can pick and choose which wines you taste and which of those you bother writing tasting notes for. If you’re judging you have to taste, consider and write up every wine properly.
2) Judging and tasting are easier with reference points
In the big wine competitions wines are usually tasted in flights of a similar type and / or origin, so wines can be compared to their peers. I’ve never tasted a dandelion wine before…should I expect to taste parsnips? Particularly with a very small number of entrants to the wines part of this competition, there was no agreed standard of quality to judge against.
3) Amateur-made drinks are not the same as commercial products.
Here I mean amateur in the best sense of the word – they are lovers of what they do, though unpaid. Do you judge them by what is available on the shelf in your local wine merchants? Or do you compare them to the less successful producers who don’t even make it that far?
It’s a difficult one to answer. Guidance was offered by the head judge and organiser, in that scores shouldn’t be too generous – people need to know what to work on. But then again, we didn’t want to scare off potential entrants.
And…when a wine is obviously faulty, it’s FAULTY!
Here are the results:
Silver Medal Winner
Blackberry
Bronze Medal Winner
Rose Hip
See the full list of medal winners in each category here!
Yet another INXS reference, and yet another link to an article on The Taste – but I make no apologies, and expect more in the future!
Please click through to read the full article here.
So, dear reader, do you have a preference for either Old or New world? Please leave a comment, I would be interested to hear.
Personally, I probably drink wine outside of mealtimes more often than with food, so this perhaps has a bearing on what I like to drink. But then I really love good Riesling, even when the producer says it’s “difficile à aimer” (difficult to love) on its own as it’s crying out for food.
The reasons why we like the wines we do need a great deal more research – though Tim Hanni MW has made a good start.
“Old world new world / I know nothing / But I’ll keep listening” – INXS
This clip is from a 1983 concert performance – when Michael Hutchence still thought he was the second coming of Mick Jagger – but before they became internationally famous.
The track itself is from their third studio album Shabooh Shoobah (1982), which also features “Don’t Change” and “The One Thing”
